


wishful thinking

by pipecleanerFlowers



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-09
Updated: 2015-04-09
Packaged: 2018-03-22 00:50:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3708985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pipecleanerFlowers/pseuds/pipecleanerFlowers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Shun looks at Serena, he sees Ruri. He sees what keeps him going even if Reiji’s plans make no sense, even though Yuuto’s M.I.A. and no one has any information on his whereabouts at all.</p><p>for the Arc V 30 Day, prompt: fantasy</p>
            </blockquote>





	wishful thinking

**Author's Note:**

> june told me to write shun fantasizing about being back in heartland with yuuto and ruri before fusion attacked but then this happened instead
> 
> (close enough)

When Shun looks at Serena, he sees Ruri. He sees what keeps him going even if Reiji’s plans make no sense, even though Yuuto’s M.I.A. and no one has any information on his whereabouts at all. Even though he’s lost all of his comrades and has been forcibly given new ones who hardly seem capable, who think they’ll be heroes, who don’t even want to get caught up in this but have anyway because life dealt them those cards whether they wanted them or not.

Serena starts hanging around him more, seemingly determined to make things right even though the only thing she has to offer him is her deck by his side on the battlefield Reiji throws them into. Her monsters aren’t Ruri’s, but her face is, and her voice sounds so familiar that he can pretend.

“Are you okay?” she asks one night, and Shun frowns up at the ceiling as he lays down on the couch. The rest are sleeping in their dorms, but she’s wide awake and when she had come knocking at his door, who was he to turn her away?

“No,” he says. “But, neither are you if you’re here at this hour.”

The TV has long since turned to static that lights up the room, and he turns his head enough to see her at the edge of her seat on the armchair. “Tell me about Ruri,” she says bluntly, and he supposes there’s no other way to ask. “And… Yuuto.”

“They were my comrades,” Shun says simply, “and, Ruri was the only family I had left. She’s with Fusion, I know she is.”

“I’m sorry I don’t have any information about her. The Prof-- Akaba Leo, never told me anything. I can’t imagine the Obelisk Force would be any help either, they just follow orders.”

“It’s not your fault,” and maybe it’s because it’s past midnight and he’s been awake for far too long that he doesn’t press it, doesn’t desperately ask for any single thread he can pull at, because even though he doesn’t trust Reiji, he at least has a plan.

That’s more than Shun can say for himself at the moment.

“You sound like her,” he says instead. “Like Ruri. She smiled more, though. Always told us it’d be okay, that everything would work out.”

“It will,” she says, determined. “I’ll make things right.”

She’s too serious, too tense. “This isn’t your fault.”

“I was going to kill you for him--”

“You haven’t.”

Her hands are fists over her knees and she bites her lip. “Then what do you want me to do?”

Nothing, if he’s honest. He doesn’t need her to stick by his side whenever they’re sent on reconnaissance. He doesn’t need her there to warn him, remind him what failure means. He’s the older one, he’s the one who’s supposed to be overprotective and cautious and take risks so no one else has to. He’s the one who has to be responsible for--

Yuuto…

Shun stares up at the ceiling, tracing the patterns with his eyes, wishing Yuuto and Ruri were by his side, living here in this too-spacious dorm with him, or better yet back in Heartland, back in school, back to their normal middle-school lives worrying about homework instead of whether they were going to survive the night. He tries to remember the last time he felt safe without his deck strapped onto his belt, or the last time before Reiji took him in that he didn’t have to worry about getting clean water or food.

“I wish you were Ruri,” he murmurs, and she looks down at her hands, brow furrowed as her shoulders shake.

“I’m sor--”

“You didn’t do anything.”

“I’m still sorry,” she says loudly. “I don’t know what else to say. What else to do… I just-- god, I don’t know,” she devolves into a whisper he has to strain to hear, “I’d do anything to give you your life back.”

“Then help me find Ruri.”

“And then?”

“I’ll figure the rest out later,” he says, because Ruri has always been his priority. If he catches a lead, he’ll ditch Reiji and his Lancers. If Serena was serious, then maybe she’ll join him. But until then… “There’s no point in a Heartland without her.”

When Shun looks at Serena, he sees Ruri. He sees what keeps him going, remembers why he still hasn’t given up. With her by his side, maybe he’ll have enough hope to get through it all.

 


End file.
